Andre Kertesz at the National Gallery

The exhibit of Andre Kretesz' photography ends May 15, so hurry up. It is on the first floor of the West Building.

The photos are virtually all black and white. (There are a few color poloroid pictures that the exhibit could have just as well done without.) The earliest was taken in about 1915, and the latest in about 1980. They were taken with a variety of cameras. The earlier pictures are very small (maybe 2 1/2" by 1 1/2") and, unless you are a miniaturist, or carry a jeweler's eye, are not easy to see.

The photographs were primarily taken in three places: Budapest, Paris and New York.

They are not snapshots. They are almost all works of art.

How to explain? The two strong points of the photos are (a) composition [i.e., they each are composed like a painting and many of them, although they are quite realistic, have the composition of a surrealist painting, a Picasso or a Braque] and (b) lighting [sunlight, shadows, gloom, time of day, all are apparent].

It looks like he worked very hard on these photos. The first in the exhibit is a small photo of a barn in Hungary at night. The explanation on the wall includes a quote from Kertesz about how hard it was to print this picture, and keep the sky from just looking too black, and how eventually (and I do not understand the photographic process, which I ascribe primarily to magic) he realized that he could put a dark red coat over that portion of the paper on which this was being printed, and then wipe it down, and how that gave texture to the night time sky. It looked like he went through something like this (at least through a very detailed planning process) on all of the paintings.

These are not action photos. They are not grand landscapes. They are not photos of oddities. They are not sexual.

There are buildings, and people (not famous people), and street scenes. A lot of it is composed to look geometric, to fool you like an Escher drawing. He has photos of Mondrian's apartment that look somewhat like - Mondrian.

These are very professional photos. You have under three weeks to see them.